SHIV AROOR coming to the forum soon.

We had been waiting to break this news to you all.The defence correspondent of India today,SHIV AROOR (of Livefist fame), would be on our forum soon and you will be allowed to ask him questions.

His book called OPERATION JINNAH is now out in the stores.

But hold your breath........ we are giving our audience a peak into his book.

*****************************
The X2 flew arrow-like through the air, with none of the external blinking lights that usually give away aircraft. Swerving away from the coast and into the mainland, the helicopter was now cruising at 15,000 feet and headed dead north on a steady bearing, its navigation computer keeping the aircraft from careening off its course.

But just as its chief pilot dozed off, something caught Vikramaditya’s eye on the radar display in the centre of the cockpit console. A small blue triangle had popped up from the bottom of the screen and was gently moving closer to the green dot in the centre of the screen, which was the X2 itself.

Aircraft. Approaching.

A single set of digits next to the triangle told Vikramaditya that the aircraft was flying about 3500 feet higher than the X2. But those digits were dropping rapidly.

The approaching object was headed straight for the X2. And fast.

‘Situation?’ Saraswati asked, sitting up. She had noticed Vikramaditya looking at the radar. Ranainstinctively looked out of his window again. But there was nothing but black.

‘Aircraft of some kind approaching. Didn’t see it before. Pretty much out of nowhere.’ Vikramadityawondered if he should take the helicopter lower. He had been ordered not to by his junior commando pilot, and he knew he had to wake her up. He didn’t need to.

‘That’s headed straight for us,’ Akeela whispered, rubbing fifteen minutes of sleep out of her eyes. ‘Make no moves. Steady.’ She jabbed the button that put the controls back into her hands. ‘He’s slowing down. Trying to check us out. Not a chance in this light.’

There was no way for the X2’s crew to tell what it was that was now clearly pursuing them. They waited. The blue triangle edged closer on the radar screen, its altitude dropping till it was level with the X2, flying dead behind the helicopter.

Akeela froze. The blue triangle now veered to the right and sped up. In less than a minute, the pursuing aircraft would be alongside them.

The X2 wasn’t a listed military aircraft. It wasn’t plugged into the military communications grid. It didn’t have a call sign or radio identity. It was completely off the books. It wasn’t meant to have unplanned encounters in the air. That was the whole point of flying ‘black’. The mid-air tank-up must have done it, Akeela thought with a sigh. As her fingers instinctively clenched around the throttle stick, she exhaled and turned her head to the right.

‘Here it comes,’ she breathed out.

At first they saw nothing. And then, it appeared. The ghostly silhouette of a large jet inched forward alongside them, its airframe lights bright, blinking against the absolute darkness of the X2.

‘Steady, Akeela. No manoeuvres,’ Rana whispered from the back seat. Lit up every few seconds by the fleeting blast of its own lights, the X2’s pursuer was now flying right next to the helicopter, the restrained roar of its twin engines audible inside the soundproof cabin.

It was a MiG-29K fighter plane, its serpentine front section now just thirty feet from the X2. The glass of its cockpit canopy shone in the moonlight, and inside it they could see the helmeted head of a fighter pilot. Looking straight at the X2.

Akeela turned a knob, turning the X2’s cabin totally dark, the instrument panels switching to night mode, visible only with night vision goggles. Akeela and Vikramaditya strapped on their goggles from below their seats. The two officers in the back looked around. The X2 was now in absolute black mode. On a new moon night, this helicopter would have been a puff of breeze to anyone caring to look. But none of that mattered now. The X2 had been spotted and cornered. Going black was useless, Akeela thought, as she put the helicopter on autopilot and looked out of her window.

‘We’re going to have to declare, sir,’ Saraswatiwhispered from the back. ‘This is not a good situation.’

‘No moves. Let him talk first.’ Rana was scanning the aircraft, whose deafening roar had been reduced to a muffled rumble inside the X2, the vibrations from its jetstream making the airborne encounter even more ominous.

‘Sir, in this current situation, I’d say we have a minute before he blows us out of the sky,’ Akeela said. ‘That’s combat patrol.’

We had been waiting to break this news to you all.The defence correspondent of India today,SHIV AROOR (of Livefist fame), would be on our forum soon and you will be allowed to ask him questions.

His book called OPERATION JINNAH is now out in the stores.

But hold your breath........ we are giving our audience a peak into his book.

*****************************
The X2 flew arrow-like through the air, with none of the external blinking lights that usually give away aircraft. Swerving away from the coast and into the mainland, the helicopter was now cruising at 15,000 feet and headed dead north on a steady bearing, its navigation computer keeping the aircraft from careening off its course.

But just as its chief pilot dozed off, something caught Vikramaditya’s eye on the radar display in the centre of the cockpit console. A small blue triangle had popped up from the bottom of the screen and was gently moving closer to the green dot in the centre of the screen, which was the X2 itself.

Aircraft. Approaching.

A single set of digits next to the triangle told Vikramaditya that the aircraft was flying about 3500 feet higher than the X2. But those digits were dropping rapidly.

The approaching object was headed straight for the X2. And fast.

‘Situation?’ Saraswati asked, sitting up. She had noticed Vikramaditya looking at the radar. Ranainstinctively looked out of his window again. But there was nothing but black.

‘Aircraft of some kind approaching. Didn’t see it before. Pretty much out of nowhere.’ Vikramadityawondered if he should take the helicopter lower. He had been ordered not to by his junior commando pilot, and he knew he had to wake her up. He didn’t need to.

‘That’s headed straight for us,’ Akeela whispered, rubbing fifteen minutes of sleep out of her eyes. ‘Make no moves. Steady.’ She jabbed the button that put the controls back into her hands. ‘He’s slowing down. Trying to check us out. Not a chance in this light.’

There was no way for the X2’s crew to tell what it was that was now clearly pursuing them. They waited. The blue triangle edged closer on the radar screen, its altitude dropping till it was level with the X2, flying dead behind the helicopter.

Akeela froze. The blue triangle now veered to the right and sped up. In less than a minute, the pursuing aircraft would be alongside them.

The X2 wasn’t a listed military aircraft. It wasn’t plugged into the military communications grid. It didn’t have a call sign or radio identity. It was completely off the books. It wasn’t meant to have unplanned encounters in the air. That was the whole point of flying ‘black’. The mid-air tank-up must have done it, Akeela thought with a sigh. As her fingers instinctively clenched around the throttle stick, she exhaled and turned her head to the right.

‘Here it comes,’ she breathed out.

At first they saw nothing. And then, it appeared. The ghostly silhouette of a large jet inched forward alongside them, its airframe lights bright, blinking against the absolute darkness of the X2.

‘Steady, Akeela. No manoeuvres,’ Rana whispered from the back seat. Lit up every few seconds by the fleeting blast of its own lights, the X2’s pursuer was now flying right next to the helicopter, the restrained roar of its twin engines audible inside the soundproof cabin.

It was a MiG-29K fighter plane, its serpentine front section now just thirty feet from the X2. The glass of its cockpit canopy shone in the moonlight, and inside it they could see the helmeted head of a fighter pilot. Looking straight at the X2.

Akeela turned a knob, turning the X2’s cabin totally dark, the instrument panels switching to night mode, visible only with night vision goggles. Akeela and Vikramaditya strapped on their goggles from below their seats. The two officers in the back looked around. The X2 was now in absolute black mode. On a new moon night, this helicopter would have been a puff of breeze to anyone caring to look. But none of that mattered now. The X2 had been spotted and cornered. Going black was useless, Akeela thought, as she put the helicopter on autopilot and looked out of her window.

‘We’re going to have to declare, sir,’ Saraswatiwhispered from the back. ‘This is not a good situation.’

‘No moves. Let him talk first.’ Rana was scanning the aircraft, whose deafening roar had been reduced to a muffled rumble inside the X2, the vibrations from its jetstream making the airborne encounter even more ominous.

‘Sir, in this current situation, I’d say we have a minute before he blows us out of the sky,’ Akeela said. ‘That’s combat patrol.’